As the parent of two Como Park Senior High School varsity athletes who participated in multiple sports from 2003 to 2015, I was surprised and glad to see former athletic director Mike Searles finally admit to stealing funds from Como Park’s athletic department. Como Park Senior High School does not serve a moneyed population and does not have a flush Booster Club like so many suburban districts. Instead, Como Park athletes regularly perform fundraising duties, including picking up garbage and shoveling manure at the Minnesota State Fair — a miserable task during summer’s hottest days.

It enrages me to know Searles secretly pocketed the athletic teams’ hard-earned funds to pay for his own golf shoes and expensive traveling team fees for his (suburban school attending) daughters. And it was particularly galling to view his family’s very public and tone-deaf facebook posts depicting lavish vacations and most recently, a cover photo of the “million dollar view” from their lakeside cabin — posted two days after Searles appeared in a Ramsey County court to plead guilty to theft by swindle.

The level of arrogance on display is truly astounding. I hope the sentencing judge has the good sense to consider more than 500 hours of community service for Searles’s felony offense and in my opinion, the more odious offense of blatant disregard for the students and families who’ve worked hard (and donated money) to provide a great athletic experience for Como Park’s athletes. Perhaps 500 hours of shoveling manure would be just — and apropos — considering Searles spent the last two years heaving a lot of b.s. about the missing money. And he’d get to experience a whole new kind of rarefied air.

Send letters to the editor or Sainted/Tainted entries to letters@pioneerpress.com or to 10 River Park Plaza #700, St. Paul MN 55107.

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